Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47

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Materials Science & Engineering A

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/msea

Effect of quenching temperature on martensite multi-level

microstructures and properties of strength and toughness in
20CrNi2Mo steel
Shao-lei Long a,b,c, Yi-long Liang a,b,c,n, Yun Jiang b,c, Yu Liang a,b,c, Ming Yang a,b,c,
Yan-liang Yi a,b,c
a
College of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering, Guizhou University, People's Republic of China
b
Guizhou Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior and Microstructure of Materials, People's Republic of China
c
National & Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for High-performance Metal Structure Material and Advanced Manufacturing Technology, People's Republic
of China

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The martensite multi-level microstructures of 20CrNi2Mo steel, which were quenched at the different
Received 5 May 2016 temperatures of 900–1200 °C and tempered at 200 °C, were investigated by optical microscope (OM),
Received in revised form scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) and transmission elec-
15 August 2016
tron microscopy (TEM), and the relationship between the microstructures and properties of strength and
Accepted 18 August 2016
Available online 25 August 2016
toughness was discussed by the classic formula of Hall–Petch. The results show that the size of prior
austenite grain (dr), martensite packet (dp) and block (db) increase with increasing of the quenching
Keywords: temperature, while the martensite lath (dl) size is opposite. On another hand, the confusion degree of the
20CrNi2Mo Steel martensite packets changes from disorder to order. The boundaries of prior austenite grain, packet, block
Martensite
and the martensite lath are high angle boundaries (HBs) and low angle boundaries (LBs), respectively,
Multi-level microstructure
and the ratio of the low angle boundaries increase with the quenching temperature by calculating to the
Effective control unit
multi-level microstructure size with the mathematical model established by myself. In addition, the
relationship between the packet/block and strength follows the classical formula of Hall–Petch, and the
size of db is far lower than the size of dp, db is the effective control unit of the strength. Meanwhile, dl is
the effective control unit of toughness because it strongly impacts the crack initiation and propagation
and follows also the Hall-Petch with toughness in 20CrNi2Mo steel.
& 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction toughness of martensite. However, they have not a unified view-

The martensite multi-level microstructures, which were one of
the most important structures in steels, have been investigated
extensively. In the previous work [1,2], the martensite multi-level
microstructures could be described by the descending levels of the
prior austenite grain, packet, block and lath. And a prior austenite
grain was divided into packets with the same habit plane, each
packet was further subdivided into blocks with the same or-
ientation and one block was composed of several martensite laths.
As early as 1970s, extensive researches have attempted to build
the relationship between the multi-level microstructures and the
properties of strength and toughness. They gave points on which
microstructure is the effective control unit for strength and
n
Corresponding author at: College of Materials Science and Metallurgical En-
gineering, Guizhou University, Xibei Road, Huaxi District, Guiyang 550025, People's
Republic of China.
E-mail address: liangyilong@126.com (Y.-l. Liang).
point, such as the effective control unit is prior austenite size (dr)
[3–5], packet size (dp) [6–11] and block size (db) [9,12–14]. For
further, as the d l did not depend on the prior austenite size d r, the
control of d l to the strength and toughness has not been clearly
understood. The early work by Grange [3] indicated that the yield
strength was in Hall–Petch relation to dr. The Hall–Petch variation
of yield strength with dp was also presented by Swarr and Krauss
[7] in a Fe–0.2C alloy, Roberts [6] in an Fe–Mn alloy, and Wang
et al. [9] in a 17CrNiMo6 steel. The dp was further regarded as the
primary micro-structural parameter controlling the yield strength
and ductile–brittle transition temperature (DBTT) by Tomita and
Okabayashi [8]. On the other hand, Morito et al. [12] revealed that
the db in the Fe–0.2C and the Fe–0.2C–2Mn alloys was the key
structural parameter controlling the strength of lath martensite by
EBSD. Lately, the role of dp in controlling the impact energy and
50% fraction appearance transition temperature (50% FATT) was
confirmed by Wang et al. [8] in an as-quenched and tempered
17CrNiMo6 steel. They found that the packet boundaries can

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.msea.2016.08.065
0921-5093/& 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47 39

strongly hinder the fracture propagation by EBSD. Table 2

Previously mentioned views based on different test methods Heat treatment of 20CrNi2Mo steel.
and analytical perspectives played an important role in the
Sample No. Quenching Temperature Quenching Medium Tempering
strengthening and toughening of the martensite steel. However, it
was difficult to be clearly revealed which kind of martensite mi- 1# 900 °C
1 h 5% iced salt water 200 °C
2 h
crostructure parameters to control the strengthening and tough- 2# 1000 °C
1 h
3# 1100 °C
1 h
ening of steel in different condition, because the refinement of the
4# 1200 °C
1 h
prior austenite grains could induce the refinement of packets and
blocks, and the mechanisms of the strengthening and toughening
became different duo to the different influencing factors (external
load, stress states and material properties), too. It was also the
main reason why different scholars had different conclusions on
the effective control unit of properties in martensite steel.
Therefore, there still exhibits plenty of controversies about the
multi-level microstructures of lath martensite dominating the
mechanical properties. In this work, the heat treatments with the
different quenching temperature of 900–1200 °C and tempered at
200 °C were carried out to vary the prior austenite grain size(dr) so
that different sizes of packets, blocks and laths could be obtained
in 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel. Then, we utilize optical micro-
scopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM)/EBSD and transmission
electron microscopy (TEM) to quantify the multi-level structural
parameters of the lath martensite at the different quenching
Fig. 1. Standard samples of (a) the tensile sample and (b) the fracture toughness
temperatures in 20CrNi2Mo steel. Meanwhile the classical formula
sample.
of Hall–Petch of the strength and toughness is made with respect
to the dr, dp, db and d1 respectively, to clarify the effective control
electron microscopy (FESEM). And the thin foils, which were fur-
unit of the strength and toughness in martensite steel.
ther mechanically grinded to below 80 mm in thickness from about
200 mm and ion thinning, were examined in a Tecnai G2 F20
S-TWIN (200 kV) high-resolution transmission electron micro-
2. Experimental materials and procedures
scopy (TEM) to observe the martensite lath.

The 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel used in this work, whose

chemical compositions were given in Table 1, was prepared by
sequential processes of melting in an electric furnace-ladle refin-
ing- vacuum degassing, continuous rolling into Φ80 mm round
bars after desulphurizing and deoxidizing sufficiently, and for-
geding into Φ17 mm round bars and 13 mm
27 mm
125 mm
plates, followed by quenching at the different temperatures and
tempering at 200 °C after annealing at 900 °C for 2.5 h, as shown
in Table 2. The specimens of tensile, fracture toughness and Charpy
U-notch were machined from the followed round bars and plates.
The uniaxial tensile test was completed by using Instron8501
test machine, to determine the tensile strength (Rm) and yield
strength (Rp0.2). The dimension of tensile samples was shown in
Fig. 1(a).
The fracture toughness (JIC) was determined at room tem-
perature with 3-point bending specimen in Fig. 1(b) by using the
Instron8501 test machine. And the Charpy U-notch specimens
with dimensions of 10 mm
10 mm
55 mm were machined
from the fracture toughness specimens to avoid the size effect, and
the impact toughness was measured by using the JB-30 pendulum
impact test machine.
The specimens at the different quenching temperature were
polished and etched in a super-saturation picric acid for Lei-
caDMI5000M optical microscopy (OM) observations of prior aus-
tenite grain. The plates of 10 mm
10 mm
3 mm, which were
cut from the impact specimens, were polished and etched using a
solution of H2O2 and HF to obtain the martensite packets and
blocks by EBSD in a SUPRA40-41-90 field emission scanning
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of quenching temperature on martensite multi-level
microstructures
Fig. 2 shows the relationship between the prior austenite grain
size and quenching temperature. A linear relationship with 0.045
slope exists between the prior austenite grain size and the
quenching temperature from 900 °C to 1100 °C, however the prior
austenite grain increases rapidly with the quenching temperature
higher than 1100 °C. The reason is that the melting of a lot of stable
carbide reduced pinning effect of the second phase to the dis-
locations in [15], lead to increasing sharply of the size of dr to
182.56 mm at 1200 °C, as shown in Fig. 2(a)–(d).
The relationship between the size of packet, block and the
quenching temperature is shown in Fig. 3. The tendency of dp and
db with quenching temperature increased from 900 °C to 1200 °C
is consistent with prior austenite grain size essentially in Fig. 2.
The EBSD observations show that the packets with the regular
shape and parallel arrangement within a prior austenite grain,
group themselves into several long strip blocks with parallel ar-
rangement in Fig. 3(a)–(d). A prior austenite grain includes several
packets with the circular region and triangular region, which is
consist of the parallel arrangement blocks, and a packet is divided
into some blocks with the almost same color between the parallel
lines in Fig. 3. Meanwhile, the different orientation or isotropy is

Table 1
Chemical composition of experimental materials (wt%).

Steel C Mn Si Cr Mo Ni S P Cu

20CrNi2Mo 0.208 0.666 0.255 0.647 0.262 1.698 0.0089 0.012 0.024
40 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47

Fig. 2. Prior austenite grain of 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel quenched at the different temperatures of (a) 900 °C, (b) 1000 °C, (c) 1100 °C and (d)1200 °C observed by OM, and
(e) sized against quenching temperature from 900 to 1200 °C.

Fig. 3. EBSD map of 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel quenched at different temperatures of (a) 900 °C, (b) 1000 °C, (c) 1100 °C and (d)1200 °C and (e) packet size and block width
dependence on quenching temperature.

clearly observed in the fine strip martensite microstructures at
lower quenching temperature. However, the packet micro-
structures of the parallel arrangement become order, and sig-
nificantly increase as the obstacles of the oriented nucleation and
growth with the martensite are weakened at the higher quenching
temperature, even the part of martensite packets form 60° angle or
equilateral triangle, that is to say the anisotropy.
The martensite lath size decreases slightly with increasing of
the quenching temperature, as shown in Fig. 4. The previous works
[16,17] indicated that the lath size was determined by the nu-
cleation rate and martensite start temperature (Ms), and the high
nucleation rate and low Ms may lead to obtaining the fine mar-
tensite laths. The increasing of the quenching temperature is
beneficial to the alloying of austenite and decreasing of
 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47 41

(a) (e) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 4. TEM structure of 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel quenched at the different temperatures of (a) 900 °C, (b) 1000 °C, (c) 1100 °C and (d)1200 °C, and (e) lath width varied
with quenching temperature.

undercooling to result in decreasing Ms and increasing the nu-
cleation rate to determine the fine laths [18]. The zones between
adjacent laths are connected by the residual austenite film from
the dark field images, whose content (Wr) increased slightly is
much lower than 3% with increasing of the quenching temperature
in Fig. 4(e).
The density distributions of martensite laths are shown in Fig. 5
by averaging about 150 laths, to further reveal the effect of the
quenching temperature on the martensite laths. Fig. 5(a) shows
the lathe size is the range from 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm, meanwhile the
peak of the distributions curve moves to left, that is to say the lath
size decreases with increasing of the quenching temperature. The
distributions curve of the lath size changes from concentration to
dispersion duo to increasing the nucleation rate and growth rate
with increasing of the quenching temperature. However, the
changing is opposite with the quenching temperature up to
1200 °C due to the alloying austenite to further increase the nu-
cleation rate. On the whole, there is nearly no changed with the
shape of the whole distributions curve, as shown in Fig. 5(b),
which agrees with Marder, etc. [19].
Fig. 6 shows the relationship between the sizes of martensite
multi-level microstructures. The size of dp in 20CrNi2Mo steel is
linearly proportional to the size of dr in Fig. 6(a), and the size of db
also increases as the increasing of packet size (dp) with the more
and more smaller tendency in Fig. 6(b). But the size of dl decreases
as the increasing of block size (db), as shown in Fig. 6(c). In other
words, the refinement laths are obtained by the different
quenching temperature with the smaller width and more quan-
tities with increasing quenching temperature.
3.2. Effect of quenching temperature on the boundaries of the high
angle and the low angle
The martensite boundary orientation angles can be character-
ized normally by defining the high angles (HB) higher than 15° and
the low angles (LB) lower than 15° in EBSD analysis. In this paper,
the boundary orientation angles of the martensite multi-level
microstructures were obtained by averaging 200 prior austenite

Fig. 5. (a) Statistical distribution of lath width at different quenching temperature; (b) whole distribution curve of lath width.
42 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47

Fig. 6. (a) Relation of dr-dp, (b) relation of dp-db, (c) relation of db-dl in 20CrNi2Mo steel.

Fig. 7. (a) Relationship between HB/LB and the boundaries of grain/packet/ block, (b) whole distribution of HBs and LBs.

grains, 200 packets, 200 blocks and 150 laths from the images of the lath boundaries in Fig. 8, to further reveal the effect of the lath
EBSD, respectively, as shown in Fig. 7. boundaries on the toughness in 20CrNi2Mo steel. At first, we as-
The observation in Fig. 7 is carried out to provide the in- sume the prior austenite grain is the 2D plane structure with an
formation of the martensite boundary orientation angles by Tango ideal regular hexagon, as shown in Fig. 8.
software. Fig. 7(a) reveals relationship between HBs/LBs and the
boundaries of grain/packet/ block/lath, it is found that the
boundary orientation angles of prior austenite grains (15–45°), L*C2*C1*X
W (T ) =
packet (45–55°), block (55–65°) are high angles (HBs) and the lath L*C2*C1*X + B*C1*X + P*X + G*X
boundaries are low angles (LBs) with low than 15°. Meanwhile, the
=
( C3 − 1)*C2*C1
distribution of the martensite boundary orientation angles with
EBSD map is shown clearly in Fig. 7(b).
( C3 − 1)*C2*C1 + ( C2 − 1)*C1 + C1 + 3 (1)
In this work, the quantity of the low angle boundaries (LBs) or where X is the quantities of the prior austenite grain, and C1, C2
the martensite lath boundaries was determined by calculating the and C3 represent the packet quantities within a prior austenite
specific gravity of the lath boundaries W(T) with the mathematical grain, the block quantities within a packet and the lath quantities
model (1), established by the probability of micro-crack meeting within a block, respectively, which are calculated by the ratio

Fig. 8. Model of martensite multi-level microstructure.

 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47 43

Table 3 Table 4
Statistics and calculation of effective boundary quantities in a prior austenite grain. Mechanical properties of 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel at different quenching
temperature.
Temp. 900 °C 1000 °C 1100 °C 1200 °C
Ratio Sample No Rp0.2/Mpa Rm/Mpa A/% Z/% CUN/J J1C/KJ m  2

C1 ¼ dr/dp 2.2 2.3 2.2 3 1# 1244.817 1495.243 12.93 56.86 69.3 70.78
C2 ¼ dp/db 6.6 5.7 5.3 12 2# 1205.045 1459.701 12.98 57.62 70.9 78.91
C3 ¼ db/dL 4.3 6.3 7.8 20 3# 1145.731 1432.684 13.43 58.22 81.9 86.74
4# 1117.428 1423.322 14.29 59.28 91.75 90.44

P¼ C1 with C1 higher than 3 or equal to 3; the effective block

boundary quantities are B¼ C2  1; and the effective lath boundary
quantities are L ¼C3  1. At last, W(T) is determined by the ratio
between the whole lath boundaries and the whole martensite
boundaries quantities of 20CrNi2Mo steel in the eq. (1).
The equation shows the W(T) does not depend on the prior
austenite grains. The data in Table 3 is substituted into the Eq. (1),
the results show that the W(T) of the lath boundaries or the low
angle boundaries increase with increasing of the quenching tem-
perature in Fig. 9 in consistent with the toughness in Fig. 12(a). In
other word, the toughness in 20CrNi2Mo steel depends on the low
angle boundaries or the martensite laths.

3.3. Effect of quenching temperature on the mechanical properties

Fig. 9. Curve of the specific gravity of the lath boundaries W(T) as quenching
temperature.
between dr, dp, db and dl (dr/dp, dp/db and db/dl), as shown in Ta-
ble 3. Because the boundaries quantities are not equal to the
quantities of the martensite multi-level microstructures, the ef-
fective prior austenite grain boundary quantities are G ¼ 3; the
effective packet boundary quantities are P ¼2 with C1 ¼2 and
Fig. 10 shows that the relationship between the mechanical
properties (Rp0.2, Rm, A, Z, CUN and JIC) and the quenching tem-
perature, whose value is given in Table 4. The Rp0.2 and Rm de-
crease with increasing of the quenching temperature with relative
drops of 136 MPa in Fig. 10(a). On the contrary, the result shows
that the ductility contradicted with previous points of the fine
grain to better ductility in Fig. 10(b). Because the high energy grain

Fig. 10. Mechanical properties of 20CrNi2Mo martensite steel at different quenching temperature of (a) yield strength and tensile strength, (b) elongation and reduction of
area and (c) impact toughness and fracture toughness.
44 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47

Fig. 11. Plots of the strength (Rm and Rp0.2) vs. reciprocal square root of (a) prior austenite grain size (dr), (b) packet size (dp), (c) block width (db) and (d) lath width (dl).

Fig. 12. Relationship between JIC、CUN and W(T), (a) curve of JIC、CUN and W(T) as the quenching temperature, (b) curve of JIC, CUN as W(T).

boundaries and small grains are decreased to inhibit the nuclea-
tion of the second phase with increasing of the quenching tem-
perature [20]. In addition, the interaction of dislocation with va-
cancies and others dislocations is weakened within a grain be-
cause of the grain coarsening to enhance dislocation moving,
which further promotes the ductility increasing. The impact
toughness and fracture toughness increase 32.4% and 27.8% with
increasing of the quenching temperature, respectively. Meanwhile
the change rule and value of them are nearly consistent as the
increasing quenching temperature, as shown in Fig. 10(c).
3.4. Effect of martensite multi-level microstructures on the strength
It is well known that the methods to improve the strength in
steel mainly included fine grain strengthening, precipitation
strengthening and dislocation strengthening, etc. The fine grain
strengthening is the most effective strengthening way to improve
strength and toughness. Obviously, the smaller the grain size is,
the more grain boundaries are, and the more effective barriers of
the mass grain boundaries to move dislocations. The strengthen-
ing effect of the fine grain is investigated by the classical formula
of Hall–Petch (2), as followed:
σ y = σ0 + k yd−1/2 (2)
where sy is the yield strength of test steel, s0 is the friction stress
for pure iron determined by the crystal structure and the dis-
location density, and kyd  1/2 is the grain boundary strengthening
(ky: Hall–Petch slope; d: the effective grain size).
The relationships between the strength (Rm and Rp0.2) and the
reciprocal square root of the martensite multi-level micro-
structures (d  1/2) are performed to provide information regarding
 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47
Fig. 13. Plots of the toughness (CUN and JIC) vs. reciprocal square root of (a) prior austenite grain size (dr), (b) packet size (dp), (c) block width (db) and (d) lath width (dl).
to the effectively control unit for strength by the classical formula
of Hall–Petch (2), as shown Fig. 11. Fig. 11(a) indicates that the
strength in lath martensite steel improve as decreasing dr, but the
dr is not the effective control unit of the strength because the re-
lationship between the strength and dr  1/2 does not follow the
classical formula of Hall–Petch in consistent with Tomita [1].
A liner relationship exists between the strength and dp  1/2, db  1/2
with increasing trend as decreasing of the size of dp and db, which
follow the formula of Hall–Petch, as shown in Fig. 11(b), (c). The result
shows that the block size (db) is finally determined as the effective
control unit of the strength since the distribution of points between
the strength and dp  1/2 is rather dispersed than db  1/2 and the block
size is far lower than the packet size. Based on the analysis above, it is
found that the block size decreases from 5.14 mm to 1.25 mm as
quenching temperature decreases from 1200 °C to 900 °C, and the
strength improves from 1117.428 Mpa to 1244.817 Mpa (Rp0.2) and
from 1423.322 Mpa to 1495.243 Mpa (Rm), respectively, it reveals the
dependence of the strength on the block size (db). However, Fig. 11
(d) shows the relationship between the strength and the lath size (dl)
did not fit the Hall–Petch but the reverse Hall–Petch with the linear
decrease, this is because that the stress concentration by little dis-
locations pile-up may go against the motion of dislocation source in
[21–23] when the fine lath width is nano-scale.
3.5. Effect of martensite multi-level microstructures on the toughness
It is well known that the increasing of the toughness (impact
toughness and fracture toughness) depends on the crack initiation
and propagation, the morphology and distribution of different
microstructures in lath martensite steel. In this work, the in-
creasing of the toughness with the quenching temperature from
900 °C to 1200 °C could have three paths:
Firstly, it is well known the high angle boundaries, which easily
45
causing stress concentration is beneficial to the crack initiation.
The more HBs are, the more the crack initiation sites determine
the lower toughness. On the contrary, the more LBs are, the less
the crack initiation sites determine the higher toughness. Fig. 12
(b) indicates that the increase of the toughness with the increasing
of W(T), the possible reason is that the low angle boundaries are
the low energy surface with stronger interface binding forces and
uneasy to interact with the solute atoms and dislocations, to fur-
ther hinder the crack initiation in [24].
Secondly, it is generally revealed that the length of propagated
cracks determine the better toughness by consuming more crack
propagation energy. On one hand, when the micro-cracks en-
counter the residual austenite film between adjacent laths, it is
arrested and deflects to across the martensite laths. Meanwhile the
blunting capability of the austenite film to the micro-crack be-
comes more obvious as the content of the austenite film increasing
slightly [25]. On the other hand, the stress criterion and strength
criterion are carried out during the crack propagation, which de-
termine the main propagating direction and the actual propagat-
ing direction, respectively [26]. When two propagating directions
are inconsistent, the crack propagates firstly towards the least
stress direction and then back to the main propagating direction
after deviating a certain distance by corresponding to the two
criterions. The larger the prior austenite grain is, the more the
opportunity that the micro-crack encounters laths is. As a result,
more energy is needed for the crack to cross the massive laths and
the longer crack propagating path [25].
Thirdly, it is reported that the hindering effect of the anisotropy
laths to the crack propagating is higher than the isotropy laths [20].
As point out above in Fig. 3, the martensite packets change from
isotropy to anisotropy in consistent with the toughness in 20CrNi2-
Mo steel, which show the strongly hindering effect to the crack
propagating with the zigzag and long crack path. In summary, the
46 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47
(a)
(c)
Fig. 14. Crack propagating path across packets of (a), (b) 2# in impact test and (c), (d) 4# in fracture toughness test. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
lath is the effective control unit of toughness because it strongly
hinders the crack initiation and propagation in this paper.
The relationships between the toughness and dr  1/2, dp  1/2, db  1/2
and dl  1/2 are performed to further provide that which kind of mar-
tensite microstructure parameters is the effective control unit for
toughness by the classical formula of Hall–Petch (2), as shown Fig. 13. A
liner relationship exists between the toughness (CUN and JIC) and dr  1/
2
, dp  1/2 and db  1/2 with decreasing tendency as decreasing of dr, dp
and db in Fig. 13(a)–(c), which show the toughness is influenced by
them as they belong to HBs to be beneficial to the crack initiation with
increasing them. Further observation, it is found that only the re-
lationship the toughness and dl  1/2 follows the Hall–Petch to further
reveal the dl is the effective control unit of toughness. The dl makes a
contribution to the toughness of lath martensite steels with
178.06 J m  3/2 and 213.37 J m  3/2 slope (ky) in Fig. 13(d).
The crack propagating path across packets in (a), (b) 2# and (c),
(d) 4# was obtained by SEM, as shown in Fig. 14. The result in-
dicates that crack shears the martensite packets along crack pro-
pagating direction with red arrows, and the probability of shearing
path (across packet) is much more than boundary path (along
packet boundaries) during the crack propagates [9]. In other word,
it is certain that the martensite laths are sheared by the cracks. It is
well known that energy consumption of shearing path is much
more than boundary path during the crack propagates, which
further provide the practicable that martensite laths is the effec-
tive control unit for toughness.
4. Conclusions
The 20CrNi2Mo steel was used to study the effect of quenching
temperature on the microstructure and the properties of strength
(b)
(d)
and toughness of the lath martensite. Based on the results, the
following conclusions can be made:
(1) The dr, dp and db increase with increasing of the quenching
temperature. However, the dl decreases slightly with increas-
ing quenching temperature, meanwhile there is nearly no
change with the shape of the whole distributions curve for the
lath size. In addition, the boundaries of prior austenite grain,
packet, block and the martensite lath boundaries are HB and
LB, respectively by EBSD orientation analysis, and the ratio of
LBs (the martensite lath boundaries) increase with increasing
of the quenching temperature by calculating to the multi-level
microstructure size with the mathematical model.
(2) The Rp0.2 and Rm decrease with increasing of the quenching
temperature. The dp/db and strength follow the Hall–Petch
formula, the distribution of points between the strength and
dp  1/2 is rather dispersed than db  1/2. In addition, the db is far
lower than the dp. This shows the block size (db) is the effec-
tive control unit for the strength
(3) The impact toughness (CUN) and fracture toughness (JIC) in-
crease significantly by 32.4% and 27.8% with increasing of the
quenching temperature, respectively. The lath size (dl) is the
effective control unit of toughness duo to it strongly impacts
the crack initiation and propagation and the size of dl and
toughness follows the Hall-Petch formula.
Acknowledgments
The research documented in this work was financially sup-
ported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
 S.-l. Long et al. / Materials Science & Engineering A 676 (2016) 38–47
51461006) and Natural Science Foundation of Guizhou province,
China (Grant No. [2014] 2003).
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